A biography for Michail Antoniohasn’t been written yet.
“I'm quite ragged. People say 'raw,' and some people don't like raw. They prefer it neat and tidy but you can't be neat and tidy and also be leaping above people at the far stick to score goals.”
“The best player I've played with is Adam Lallana. I just think he's quality. He's both footed. When I was playing with him at Southampton I kept asking him what foot he is. He said 'I'm both.' I was like well everyone's dominant one foot and he was like 'no I'm both.'”
“It does make me proud to know where I've come from and how hard I have worked, but I'm also scared of it, because I know what I've had to do, and I don't ever want to go back to that situation. It drives me more to be better.”
“Once I've picked the ball up, I look at the full-back and I make my decision. Am I going to go past him? I don't think about it before. Everything I do is a reaction. That's why some people don't like it.”
“Fernandinho is strong.”
“I'm an attacking player who likes to score goals. I love scoring goals.”
“I never really thought about becoming the all-time top goalscorer. Because when I first signed for West Ham, I was just trying to get a game.”
“I'm not that refined academy player who's going to pick the ball up, pass it and be neat and tidy all the time. I'm a player who's going to get it and run at the full-back, run in behind.”
“To have the experience of the World Cup would be unbelievable.”
“I had to be resilient playing non-League because I was 17 playing against men. I always knew how to beat someone and how to use my body. And that's one thing academy players don't really learn. Because in the academy you're playing against people your age. I was always playing against men.”
“There's no better feeling than scoring a goal in front of fans.”
“I'm an attacking player - I prefer left wing, right wing. They're quite even for me.”
“Slaven remains calm and even in games when he feels we should be doing better, he will come in and say 'boys we have the ability to get back in there and I believe in you.' Even if we don't get the points he wants us to show we can do better and make him proud.”
“Academy wingers always pick up the ball and then cut inside or lay it off. No one runs at players like I do, or gets to the back stick and overpowers a defender.”
“I was semipro at Tooting & Mitcham. They paid the tax and we got paid cash in hand. I told my mum, 'I'm getting paid to play football' and she took half of my wages. So of my very first paycheque, my mum got half of it. I call it 'mummy tax.'”
“We don't want to lose any games.”
“Can you give someone a bad name for wanting to be ambitious? For wanting to move onto bigger things? That person is ambitious, that person wants to do stuff, that person wants to move on with his life.”
“I don't really pay attention to the long-term, I take short steps - that is what I have done through my whole career, from non-league to the Premier League.”
“Always have belief in yourself that you can achieve things.”
“Pre-season is warm-up for the season so if you can do it in pre-season then you can do it in the season. So it's always better to go out there and give it your all, get your fitness and make sure you perform, because obviously sometimes managers take performances in pre-season to decide if you're going to start the first game of the season.”